TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: school shooting

  • NIU shooter was on Ambien

    Girlfriend: Shooter was taking cocktail of 3 drugs:

    Remember when I said that Stephen Kazmierczak meds had nothing to do with the shooting? I stand corrected…sort of.

    It turns out that Kazmierczak was on three drugs, Prozac, Xanax, and Ambien. Prozac is an anti-depressant which as I stated before should have still been in his system at the time that he stopped taking it. Xanax is an anti-anxiety drug kind of like Valium. I’ve been prescribed Xanax before. After taking one of those the only thing I wanted to do was sleep so I don’t think it was the Xanax. Ambien is a drug that is supposed to help you sleep. In a lot of cases, it does the exact opposite at best.

    A few years ago there was a member of my family who was prescribed Ambien for sleep. Whenever they took an Ambien to try to sleep they would end up being up for hours in a stupor-like state. It got to the point where I didn’t want to be around them when they were on Ambien and I was worried for their own safety. Luckily when I expressed my concerns they realized what Ambien was doing to them and stopped taking it. In my personal opinion, I think Ambien is a danger and should be taken off the market.

    There have been instances where people arrested for car accidents have claimed that they were on Ambien and didn’t even remember that they were driving. Can I draw the conclusion that Ambien caused Kazmierczak to on his killing spree? Logically, no. Only by anecdotal evidence would I try to make that conclusion. However, I don’t think it should be ruled out.

  • NIU shooting and the media

    Northern Illinois shooting goes unnoticed:

    This is an op-ed piece from the San Jose State student newspaper about how the national media has treated the NIU shooting and how it’s basically ignored the story since it happened.

    People reacted in horror when Seung-Hui Cho attacked Virginia Tech University last April, and grief gripped the nation for several days. Compare that with Thursday, when people didn’t even bat an eye when Steven Kazmierczak committed a similar crime at Northern Illinois University. It felt like a bad horror movie we had seen before.

    Some took note, a few grieved and a lot just didn’t notice.

    Only five days after the event, the NIU shooting and the issues surrounding it were less significant to CNN than satellites being shot down and Bill Clinton picking on a heckler. By contrast, the shooting at Virginia Tech filled our media’s consciousness for at least a week.

    I hate to say it but the truth hurts sometimes. Ever since Columbine, it’s been all about body count as far as the media is concerned. At Columbine 13 were killed. At Virginia Tech 32 were killed. At NIU just 5 were killed. I think it also had something to do with the fact that as far as we know so far Stephen Kazmierczak wasn’t an attention seeking douchebag like Cho, Harris, and Klebold. Go down the list of categories on my site and tell me how many of the shootings you’ve heard of.

    This is where I like to think that this is where this site serves its purpose. When one of these incidents unfortunately happens I post about it from start to finish.

  • NIU gunman covered his tracks

    Gunman Hid His Tracks, Officials Say:

    It seems that The Times is on a roll lately.

    Anyway, this is an article about how NIU gunman Stephen Kazmierczak covered his tracks prior to the shooting.

    The hard drive from his computer and the SIM card from his cell phone are both missing. I think this lends credence to my theory about Kazmierczak possibly being a paranoid schizophrenic.

    This wasn’t the typical school shooting either because as of yet there’s no evidence that Kazmierczak craved any kind of attention like that of Cho Seung-Hui or Kimveer Gill.

    I think this is just a tragic incident of an undiagnosed mental illness.

  • Meds played little to no role in NIU shooting

    Reports of Gunman’s Use of Antidepressant Renew Debate Over Side Effects:

    This is a great article from the NY Times (which is rare) about what kind of role antidepressants played at the NIU tragedy.

    In a word, they probably played no role whatsoever.

    Kazmierczak was on Prozac and was off of it for three days prior to the shooting. According to the article, Prozac doesn’t leave your system in that time.

    Now the anti-depressant Luddites will still use this as an argument because they can’t make up their minds if being on or off antidepressants causes situations like this.

    Most medical professionals quoted in the article say that when patients on antidepressants have violent outbursts like this it usually indicates another underlying problem.

    And I’m sure they’ll also ignore this quote.

    Dr. Michael Stone, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, maintains a database of 1,000 violent crimes, including mass murders, going back decades. In many cases the accused had stopped taking drugs for schizophrenia, Dr. Stone said.

    “I only have a handful of cases,” he added, “where the person was on an antidepressant.”

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Kazmierczak had undiagnosed schizophrenia.

    Personally, I couldn’t laud the benefits of antidepressants enough. Being on one has literally saved my life.

  • The One Who Shall Not Be Named sues for NIU shooter’s game history

    GamePolitics.com » Blog Archive » Jack Thompson, Seeking Killer’s Video Game History, Threatens NIU with Lawsuit:

    Pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request production of copies of all documents that reveal Steven Kazmierczak’s play of violent video games, including but not limited to the use of his computer to play Counter-Strike, which he apparently, according to the New York Post, used to rehearse for his Valentine’s Day Massacre at NIU.

    Does it ever stop with him?

  • Kazmierczak’s girlfriend speaks out

    NIU shooter’s girlfriend: No sign he was ‘planning something’:

    Jessica Baty was the on again/off again girlfriend of NIU gunman Stephen Kazmierczak. In an interview with CNN Baty said that Kazmierczak went off his antidepressants because it made him feel like a zombie but that he wasn’t acting erratically in the weeks leading up to the shooting. If you ask me feeling like a zombie is preferential to being a dead mass murderer but I digress.

    Bath also received two packages from Kazmierczak. One had two textbooks, a goodbye note, and a cell phone. The second contained a holster and ammunition.

    If your meds make you feel like a zombie just don’t go off them. Contact your doctor and tell him/her your concerns about your meds. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get the right dosage of the right medication. Trust me, I’ve been there. Once they find the right medication and dosage it will make your life a whole lot better.

  • NIU gunman had massive ‘Saw’ tattoo

    jigsaw_puppet

    Tattoo artist tells of working with NIU gunman:

    NIU gunman Stephen Kazmierczak had a rather large tattoo on his back in tribute to the horror movie Saw.

    Jason Dunavan says his work included an image of the macabre doll from the horror movie “Saw” riding a tricycle through a pool of blood. There were images of several bleeding cuts in the background of the tattoo.

    This revelation will cause two things to happen. The first is that I’m sure some reactionary group will blame the movie for the tragedy at NIU. I find that laughable of course considering many people, including my wife, are huge fans of the Saw series and I would say 99.9% are not criminals.

    However, I think that will begin to change as mutants usually pick up the habits of past school shooters and will begin to adopt this as required movie watching for the mutant set as Natural Born Killers became in the past.

  • E.O. Green Junior High shooter has hate crime tacked on to murder charge

    Boy, 14, charged with murder, hate crime:

    The gunman in the E.O. Green Junior High School shooting has been identified as 14-year-old Brandon David McInerney. Since his victim, 15-year-old Lawrence King, has been declared brain-dead and will not survive McInerney is being charged with murder with what the article calls a hate crime enhancement.

    Prosecutors are saying that they do intend to try McInerney as an adult. With the murder charge, he’s looking at 25 to life. The hate crime enhancement would tack on another three years.

    Prosecutors are not saying why the hate crime charges were filed but classmates of King say that he was either gay or a crossdresser.

    Several classmates have said King would wear feminine attire, making him an unpopular figure with other boys at his campus.

    King sometimes came to school wearing makeup and high heels, said eighth-grader Nicholas Cortez, 14.

    Another eighth-grader, Michael Sweeney, said King’s appearance was “freaking the guys out,” the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

    “He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails – the whole thing,” Sweeney told the Times.

    Personally, I think all crimes are hate crimes but anything that will keep this little ball of hate behind bars longer is ok with me.

    Now I’m not trying to cast aspersions on the victim or his family. I have nothing against gay people or crossdressers but at 15 and in a public school you would think his parents would have stepped in and stopped him from dressing like that at school. One would have to know that dressing like that would only invite trouble.

  • NIU gunman was off his meds

    NIU gunman stopped taking medication:

    According to this article some corrections to be made. The NIU gunman’s correct name is Stephen Kazmierczak. Not Steven as previously reported. That and five victims of his were killed not six. But onto the main topic of the article.

    It seems that Kazmierczak was off his meds. The article doesn’t state what meds he was on or why he was on them.

    The article also states that he carried the shotgun he used in a guitar case. I guess this delusional assclown thought he was El Mariachi.

    But I’m sure we’ll hear from the anti-medication Luddites.

  • NIU gunman’s identity confirmed

    Elk Grove man identified as gunman in NIU killings:

    The identity of the NIU gunman has been confirmed that he was, in fact, Steven P. Kazmierczak.

    Some people are saying that it’s ironic that Kazmierczak would commit such a horrific travesty considering he was active in the fields of criminal justice and sociology.

    He co- author a published study on prison policy, entitled “Self-injury in Correctional Settings: ‘Pathology’ of Prisoners or of Prisons?”

    According to that paper, Kazmierczak had study interests in “corrections, political violence, and peace and social justice.” At the time he was also said to be writing a paper about the role of religion in the early formation of U.S. prisons.

    He also served as vice president of NIU’s Academic Criminal Justice Association and was on the board of a college chapter of the American Corrections Association, which studied jailing policy and the justice system, according to related Web sites.

    Personally, I don’t think it’s ironic at all. It sounds like he had a soft spot in his heart for criminals rather than victims. It’s obvious that he didn’t care about victims at all since he made so many of his own.